Brock Pemberton

Brock Pemberton was an American theatrical producer, director and founder of the Tony Awards. He was the professional partner of Antoinette Perry, co-founder of the American Theatre Wing, and he was also a member of the Algonquin Round Table. Pemberton gave the Antoinette Perry Award its nickname, the Tony (at the initial event in 1947, as he handed out an award, he called it a Tony). As Perry’s official biography at the Tony Awards website states, “At Jacob Wilk’s suggestion, Pemberton proposed an award in her honor for distinguished stage acting and technical achievement.”

Upon graduation from Emporia College, he became a press agent in New York City. Later, Pemberton directed and produced the American premiere of Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author (1922) as well as its first Broadway revival two years later. In 1929 he produced and directed Preston Sturges’ play Strictly Dishonorable, which was filmed twice, in 1931 and again in 1951.

Among his other productions was Miss Lulu Bett, whose writer Zona Gale became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, Personal Appearance by Lawrence Riley, which was a Broadway hit and was later turned into the film Go West, Young Man and Harvey, Mary Chase’s play about a man whose best friend is a large imaginary rabbit, later made into a film starring Jimmy Stewart.

A Tony Award was given to Pemberton posthumously in recognition of his role as the founder and the original chairman of the Tony Awards.

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Phi Delta Theta Museum

The Phi Delta Theta International Fraternity General Headquarters in Oxford, Ohio houses and oversees precious archives and museum quality artifacts that have been acquired since the founding of this great Fraternity. These museum rooms were designed to preserve and interpret the rich history of the issues and individuals that have played an important role in the Fraternity’s history and represent its commitment to the Cardinal Principles of Friendship, Sound Learning and Rectitude.

In conjunction with a major renovation of the General Headquarters interior during the summer of 2016, and to make this museum experience accessible to all Phis, the General Headquarters created this digital museum to bring much of this rich Phi Delta Theta history to you, wherever you are and whenever you want it. Whether you are interacting with this unique digital museum in the Museum Room at the General Headquarters in Oxford, or viewing its content elsewhere, we hope it brings to life the broad and deep greatness experienced by Phis, and as a result of Phis, since our founding in 1848.